good morning all .
sorry i had to run when i made the last post .
so ill try and finish .
So as was shown above . Not all Hall rifles were made at HFA.
Also while the earlier Hall rifles were flintlock . The l 1833, 1836 , 1840 type 1 and 2 1842, 1843 hall-North , were all percussion guns
Let me also exsplain something I said
In fact it�s the only rifle to be converted from muzzle loading to cartridge and then converted back during a time of war .
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Im not sure we could today yet pin down what rifle was the first to go from muzzleloader to breech loader , to cartridge and back to muzzleloader .
The reason being , by the end of the civil war , the confederates were trying to field as many rifles as possible .
Many of these has started life as muzzleloaders then were converted to breechloader . There were a whole lot of different people offering conversions but the most commonly know was the Linder and Merrill alterations .
Then out came the next conversions to cartridge. Both Springfield and harpers ferry were doing this to early muskets many of which were 1816 -1841 models�
Now why is this important . Well because if one even casually looks you see that the Hall design was the key to that evolution.
If you go back even farther . We see that what Hall actually did was build on the very old Breech block application which had been used Very early in artillery and in some case Gunne�s. in yet other cases that breech block . well its a cartradge .
Now this is where it gets kind of tricky concerning the Hall rifles .
See as time goes on and more and more information is found . Things change .
Not so long ago some of the J.B Barrett rifles were given their own distinct production
However we now know that at least some of these , were not Barrett rifles at all. Instead they were Hall rifles that Barrett converted and then put his name on
Madus writes :
Formerly believed to have been the work of J,B Barrett of Wytheville , Virginia (whose foundry did fill C.S. contract for converting and altering civilian and military arms for government service ), these arms are recently identified as made for the state of Virginia and their forces from standard issue model 1819 rifles and various Hall Carbines already in the Virginia Militia inventories and not from parts captured at Harpers Ferry , as previously believed
So maybe POPE did know what he was talking about , because here we have yet another conversion happening to the Hall rifles .
So where am I going with all this .
Well while it doesn�t tie into the main topic here . It ties into what some folks believe and or have said .
See history is a strange thing . It gets even stranger when you define it down to American history . The reason is that we have a tendency to pick and chose the history we want to believe then define our choices as fact .
When in fact the truth is that there was a whole lot going on and what we want to believe isn�t always so cut and dried .
The fact is that from day one of firearms evalution , muzzle loading , breech loading and even cartridge evolution all were taking place at the very same times . not just in the 19 century as many would believe or have you believe .
Thus in many cases what we think as common really isn�t as common as we would like to think .
In this case we have the Hall Rifles which were produce in far greater numbers then Hawkens rifles . Which in fact were produced in far , FAR, lesser numbers then the Hennery , derringer and Leman . Even though they all were being produce at the very same time . Yet somehow we have grasp onto the Hawken rifle as being the weapon of choice . When in fact by the Hawkens own documentation , that could never have been the case do to shear numbers of firearms being manufactured in theta timefraim .
So we continue to bastardize and not give credit where credit is do . We continually try and proclaim something is the same when in fact it may or may not be .
Today most modern inline ignition designs have very little to nothing in common with original inline ignition designs . Simply put they have evolved to have far more in common with cartridge designs then the efficiency and reliability of the muzzle loading forerunners .
but We also have to realize that those cartridge designs , also had their applications in the evolution of the firearms as such we can some parts directly back to earlier designs and many times muzzle loading designs .
Same thing can be said about some mass produced traditional designs , which we all accept as traditional . While they are side locks and such what we chose to describe them as is all to often not even close . Do they function the same . Yes . But in some cases just like some of Doc whites Pauley replicas , its purely cosmetic .
Anyway . This is to long and I find myself writing a book that probably very few will understand .
Be safe and have a very good day